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Oct 5 2006 05:07pm
A Brief Overview of All That Is Bowassin

I decided to take what I had to say and post it all in one thread, together.

To start: The bowassin can be built in many different ways. Preferably when using the bow, an assassin wants to integrate one or more of her other skills into her attacks (so she isn't JUST firing arrows). There is the choice of bow/kick, bow/ww, bow/ww/kick, bow/trap, bow/ww/trap, bow/ww/trap/kick, bow/trap/kick. As you can see, this is just a list of the different ways a bowassin can play. I will be going over the different options.

My Definition of a Bowassin: An assassin that uses Widowmaker (a bow that allows her to shoot guided arrows) as one of her main forms of attacks, in the majority of her duels.

The stats:
Strength - Base or enough to wear gear.
Dexterity - Base or enough to wear gear.
Vitality - As much as possible.
Energy - None.

The skills:
For skills, this is based on your gear setup, and how you are going to play the bowassin. I'll begin with the must-haves:
20- venom !venom is very important, since it is generally the bowassin's main source of damage

Next there are the choices of how you will build the bowassin. There are many different unique approaches. I will list some options:

Mindblast - By maximizing this, you are devoting yourself to pure bow/kick, pure bow/ww, or pure bow/firetrap (or a mix of those three). Maximizing mindblast allows for a high damage mindblast which is long-lasting (the stun symbol above the enemy's head lasts longer with a higher level mindblast). With a high cast rate and proper use of the skill in combination with arrows, this can be deadly.

Lightning Sentry - Synergies go along with this. By maximizing this skill, you are devoting yourself to pure bow/trap, bow/trap/ww, or bow/trap/kick.

Wake of Fire - Synergies go along with this. By maximizing this skill, you are doing the same as above, although with less devotion to putting skill points into traps (there is only 2 synergies to wake of fire, whereas lightning sentry has 3).

Dragon Flight & Dragon Talon - One does not have to maximize these skills, although they can choose to in order to go pure bow/kick or bow/kick/ww (using no traps, or possibly fire traps if they spread their skills out wisely).

Important skills you must add atleast one to are as follows:
- mindblast
- shadow warrior
- claw mastery
- fade
- burst of speed


Useful skills that one would want to add to are as follows:
- Dragon talon
- Dragon flight

Skills that one should not add to unless if they really want to (for the sake of looking cool, etc.):
- Blade Shield

Finally, 1 to all prereqs.

Important notes to take before getting into the items:

When making your assassin, you have to choose your playstyle, and the type of bowassin you will be (whether you will need dr to tank or not is one major importance). Immediately I must point out that the ias breakpoint for widowmaker on an assassin with level 17 or higher burst of speed is only 10%, and level 13 or higher burst of speed is only 15% (for 9fpa, 2.7 attacks per second). Without burst of speed, 10-15% ias yields 14fpa, 1.7 attacks per second. 20% ias yields 1.9 attacks per second, 13fpa. 30% ias yields 2 attacks per second, 12fpa. 50% ias yields 2.2 attacks per second, 11fpa. 75% ias yields 2.5 attacks per second, 10fpa. 125% ias yields 2.7 attacks per second, 9fpa.

In conclusion, using fade would mean the bowassin would have a low rate of fire with the bow, or would have to buff up with ias gear. For this reason, burst of speed is more useful than fade, because you will be able to freely use nice gear (such as CoA and other such things) rather than wasting time on ias gear. The ONLY reason one might want to use ias gear and use fade would be if they are focussing on physical damage with their bowassin, which is definitely not recommended.

48% FHR is your breakpoint for your hit recovery that you will be aiming for.

Items:

Helm: CoA ber/ber or ber/-15% req jewel if using burst of speed. Alternatively, a GFG sin helm would work (2 socket 2 skills 20% fcr, etc.). If using whirlwind on the switch, the bowassin should use CoA (so that she may reach 50% dr).
Alternative: Shako /w Ber

Amulet: High resist maras or a GFG Sin amulet (2 skills or 3 trap, with fcr and other mods or possiblye dex/str).
Alternative: None that come to mind. Possibly a gfg fcr/str/dex/resist amulet.

Armor: Enigma!!! No alternative. Teleport, strength, frw, skills, etc. just too useful.

Weapon#1: Widowmaker!!! How the hell do we make a bowassin without a widowmaker? What you put in the widowmaker is up to you. I strongly suggest a 15% ias jewel with a good mod (to meet the ias breakpoint with burst of speed). Your other choice is an um rune for open wounds.
Alternative: Nothing.

Weapon#2: This depends on your build. If you have chosen to be a ww switch, have chaos/fury or chaos/(fool's runic talons of _____). If you have chosen trap/bow, have a good trap setup (dual trap claws, or hoto/spirit, or whatever you see fit for trapping). If you have chosen pure bow, you could just have your normal cta/spirit switch. If you do not have cta/spirit on switch, you will have to prebuff bo's every duel.

Gloves: You have a choice here. If you want to go with high fcr, choose trang-ouls (it also adds 25% extra poison damage, definite bonus). Another good choice is 20% ias knockback gloves (if you use these, put um in your widowmaker). Your final choice is clegclaws (a cheap choice, but the 25% slow does annoy some people, and knockback is very useful).
Note! When choosing your gloves, even if you don't use trang-ouls normally, use them when prebuffing bo's (for a higher venom damage).

Belt: You have a choice here, too. To reach a high damage reduction %, one should use verdungos (% dr, good vita, 10% fhr). Otherwise, arachnid mesh is a good choice (1 skills, 20% fcr, extra mana bonus).

Boots: This is up to you. GFG rare boots are your BEST choice. I play on ladder, so I use marrowalks for the str/dex (not a favourable choice, since rare boots are way better in almost every way).

Ring#1: Raven Frost. You want one of these for the dexterity (to use widowmaker), as well as the cannot be frozen mod, and the +AR (if you are ww'ing).

Ring#1: 10% FCR Str/Dex ring. The more gfg the ring is, the better.

Prebuff: Cta/Spirit if you have to keep them in stash for prebuff. Trang-ouls if you aren't using them in-duel. Demon Limb adds good fire damage and good AR.

Charms: +max/AR/life small charms work well. +life/trap charms work well if you are going trap (use 5 max). If you haven't reached 48% fhr, wear some good fhr charms.

- 20stat/high res annihilus is important
- 20stat/high res torch is important

------------------------------------------------------------------

My Personal Bowassin Setup

FCR is important. Though, if you follow the guide through with a 15% dungos, ber/ber CoA, and enigma, your DR will reach 50% (since as a bowassin burst of speed is important over the dr provided by fade). If you have a shield on switch, or dual claws, you will have blocking capabilities (allowing for more defensive power). With burst of speed, your trap laying speed will be awsom no matter what. For your cast rate, you have a 10% fcr ring and 20% trang gloves. You may need more, and in order for this, you may choose a 20% fcr good circlet, or possibly arach (20% fcr). For a more fragile bowassin, one could choose a circlet and arach, allowing for 40% fcr + 10% fcr ring + 20% fcr gloves + a possible extra fcr from amulet.

I find my bowassin layout (trap/ww/bow/kick) works great:
CoA(ber/ber)
Enigma
Maras
Widowmaker with 39%ed/15%ias jewel
Chaos/Fury switch
Cta/Spirit in stash with trang-oul
Clegclaws (I use my ww for knockback, poison, and slow, for distraction and defensive manouvers)
Marrowalks (on ladder, working on getting some good rare boots)
20/241 ravenfrost
20 str 10% fcr ring with good mods (68 mana, poison resist, a few other things)
20/16 sin torch
20/16 anni
lifer trap gc's (x4)
life/ar gc (x1)
some 20 life/ar and 20 life/resist sc's
1x 5 dex lc with 8% fire res (needed the extra dex to wear widowmaker)

I maxed lightning sentry, and added to its synergies. I added 1 to dragon talon, and my fury claws already add to dragon flight for me. I maxed venom and added 1 to all important skills.

Note that my bowassin lacks faster cast rate, which is probably a stupid idea (cast rate is important).

---------------------------------------------------------------

Understanding FCR/FHR When Choosing Items:

Adding on to the basics of a bowassin, in order to better understand how you will choose your gear (continuing a general outlook on the bowassin, allowing for you to choose the type of bowassin you want while knowing what to do):

FHR Breakpoints:

Frame ------- | -9- | --8- | --7-- | --6--- | --5-- | --4-- | --3--- | --2--- |
FHR needed | 0% | 7% | 15% | 27% | 48% | 86% | 200%| 4680%

FCR Breakpoints:

Frame -------| -16-| -15-| -14-- | -13-- | -12- | --11--| --10--| --9-- |
FCR needed | 0% | 8% | 16% | 24% | 42% | 65% | 102%| 174%

With this, and with refence to some of the things I previously mentioned, we can better understand what item choices are the best.

Firstly, your hit recovery. 48% is an easy number to reach; beyond this number is 86%, which is not necessary and is far more than 48%. Hit recovery can be obtained through your helm, belt, boots, and charms (with the given items you will be limited to). For the helm, your best choices are a rare circlet with good mods and FHR or Crown of Ages (which provides 30% FHR). For your belt, if you choose to use verdungo's (greater tanking abilities, but lower fcr) you will be provided with 10% more FHR. If you have chosen good rare boots (the best choice), they will most likely provide 10 or 20% FHR. With just your items, you should be able to reach your FHR breakpoint. If you do not, you can always wear a few charms to meet 48% (12% for the gc, 8% for the lc, 5% for the sc).

Secondly, your cast rate. Your cast rate is important for many reason, though mainly teleport and mindblast are the two skills that revolve around fcr you will be using most often, both defensively and offensively. The higher your cast rate, the better you can use these two skills. 65% will be the highest breakpoint you can reach using this build. The items that can provide you with FCR with this build are your helm, amulet, belt, gloves and rings. Your helm will give a maximum of 20% FCR (a rare circlet), your amulet will give a maximum of 20% FCR (a rare amulet) or 10% (a trap/fcr amulet), your belt will give a maximum of 20% FCR (arachnid mesh), your gloves will give you 20% (trang-ouls), and your rings will give a maximum of 10% FCR each. To reach 65% safely, the use of a circlet (20%) + a FCR ring (10%) + trang-oul gloves (20%) + arachnid mesh (20%) will get you there (remember you should be using one raven frost, so you can't wear 2x fcr rings). By choosing 65% FCR, you will be lacking damage reduction, but gaining in other areas. 42% FCR is much easier, which would most likely use a rare circlet (20%) + a fcr ring (10%) + [trang-oul gloves or arachnid mesh for 20%].

On a side note: My bowassin, which uses whirlwind dual-claws on switch, uses knockback gloves instead of trang-ouls. I wouldn't recommend this to most people, though it can be very effective: For one, this allows your bow and your whirlwinds to knock people back. I find that when I use ww as a bowassin, it is only to apply poison damage, and to disorient my opponent (mindblast, place a trap, mindblast, teleport, whirlwind to knock them around, teleport away, bow them down... or however you want to work it).

This post was edited by Canadian_Man on Oct 5 2006 05:23pm
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Oct 6 2006 09:41pm
What about using Death's Web and Stormshield on switch
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Oct 6 2006 09:48pm
Quote (briefcase @ Sat, Oct 7 2006, 03:41am)
What about using Death's Web and Stormshield on switch


I'm not exactly sure how the poison would result on this, but I would have to say this wouldn't work out very well in the majority of duels. I don't know what to say about this really, but death's web wouldn't really do much for your damage.

[edit] See as how your poison damage only lasts 0.4 seconds, the only use for this switch would be to quickly switch after a shot from the bow. What would be more effective would be continuous attacks.

This post was edited by Canadian_Man on Oct 6 2006 09:51pm
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Oct 6 2006 09:51pm
Quote (briefcase @ Sat, Oct 7 2006, 03:41am)
What about using Death's Web and Stormshield on switch


thats the build i went with (made one of these about a week ago, i used this setup

2sin/20fcr/30frw/15ais/27 cold res Circ
Storm hide ammy
2/24 dancers
Bp nigma
Trangs
arach
241/20 rf
20str/111ar/10fcr ring
Nef'd Widow
SHaeld Dweb
40/15'd SS
9x Shadow gcs (much better than max/ar/life in terms of dmg)
torch
anni
10x Life/ar scs (if you plan on kicking for switch, +max dmg doesnt apply to kicks)

With this setup, you can use base str and dex smile.gif



Very nice guide up there man, you may want to add a strat section up there, b/c i know for a fact that this char is a little difficult to get used to dueling with.
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Oct 6 2006 09:52pm
Quote (Canadian_Man @ Sat, Oct 7 2006, 03:48am)
Quote (briefcase @ Sat, Oct 7 2006, 03:41am)
What about using Death's Web and Stormshield on switch


I'm not exactly sure how the poison would result on this, but I would have to say this wouldn't work out very well in the majority of duels. I don't know what to say about this really, but death's web wouldn't really do much for your damage.


Yea actually its a popular kicker build, and the -pr really does alot, and if you shael it, you can still get all your ias bps, and the 20fcr will help w/ the fcr bps

IF you didnt reallize, hes talking about making a bow/kicker hybrid

This post was edited by Sam beam on Oct 6 2006 09:54pm
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Oct 6 2006 10:03pm
Quote (Sam beam @ Sat, Oct 7 2006, 03:52am)
Quote (Canadian_Man @ Sat, Oct 7 2006, 03:48am)
Quote (briefcase @ Sat, Oct 7 2006, 03:41am)
What about using Death's Web and Stormshield on switch


I'm not exactly sure how the poison would result on this, but I would have to say this wouldn't work out very well in the majority of duels. I don't know what to say about this really, but death's web wouldn't really do much for your damage.


Yea actually its a popular kicker build, and the -pr really does alot, and if you shael it, you can still get all your ias bps, and the 20fcr will help w/ the fcr bps

IF you didnt reallize, hes talking about making a bow/kicker hybrid



Ah, I see. Yeah, that would definitely work... Thought he meant for the switch after shooting guided arrows at someone.
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Oct 12 2006 09:15am
Can i get a setup that utilizes death web
something like a kicker/bow/mb/trap hybrid
High MB/ Venom Dmg
Traps for stun
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Oct 12 2006 09:19am
ya, definitely wof for stun, mb them then either df on them to kick or just shoot em with arrows tongue.gif

my switch is MAINLY dweb/ss
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Oct 12 2006 10:06am
Nice guide smile.gif Liked it.
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Oct 16 2006 09:05pm
does no1 like a coh for dueling casters?
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